The Architecture of War: Environments

Vociferous of Ascendant Justice takes an in-depth, multi-faceted look at the encounters of the Halo series - starting with the environments of Halo: CE...

Taken from the article:

"What is undeniably one of the greatest traits of the Halo series is its ability to graft together memorable and authentically complex encounters. Whether it’s the immersion of the environment, the choices the sandbox inherently offers or even the scope and scale of the battle - when an encounter is done right, it can leave you speechless."

The first in a multi-part piece entitled "The Architecture of War," this article takes a close look at the environments of Halo: CE and asks the question: "How does an environment really affect an encounter?" From the swamps of 343 Guilty Spark to the ice fields of Assault on the Control Room, vociferous probes the settings of these memorable encounters, and in doing so, helps us to understand what makes Halo, Halo.

MLG San Diego This Weekend

Major League Gaming is holding their second event of the season this weekend in beautiful San Diego. All of the best teams in the world will be competing to be named the champions of San Diego. Go to mlgpro.com to check out all of the great action.

Check out all the action this weekend as Major League Gaming is in San Diego for the 2nd event of their 2008 Pro Circuit Tour. They will be broadcasting live all weekend long at mlgpro.com, with 2 TV quality broadcasts, ESPN Saturday Night & MLG Championship Sunday. ESPN Saturday Night will air June 14th at 11:00PM ET, and MLG Championship Sunday will air June 15th at 6:00PM ET; to check out the programs make sure you visit mlgpro.com.

Bungie to Unveil Surprise Saturday at MLG San Diego

At MLG San Diego Bungie will give those players and spectators a surprise! No information was leaked so were all in the dark. Lukems and Shishka are at MLG San Diego and are going to reveal the surprise to them Sat at 6 p.m. local time. It will not be shown on MLGPro.com.

By Dyslexia | Published: June 14, 2008 2:50am EST

As the San Diego competition got underway tonight, MLG was delighted to see that Bungie's own Lukems and Shishka were on hand to check out the action--and reveal to us that they had a very special surprise for the people in attendance. At 6 p.m. PT tomorrow (Saturday), Bungie and MLG will be putting on a very special event on the Halo 3 Main Stage. We are not allowed to say anything specific about it right now, but trust us when we say that you DO NOT want to miss what we have in store for you. We will not be showing it on the web--this is a special treat to the people who came out to the event. So if you live in the San Diego area, definitely be sure to come out tomorrow and check it out--you won't be seeing this anywhere else...

And for anyone who lives too far away to make it out, we will post up some info about what went down soon after the fact, so keep your browser locked to mlgpro.com!

Reverse Engineering the Spawn System

Halo community member Devinish theorises on The Forge's spawning system. Expect mathematical precision, big friendly diagrams and potential enlightenment in this detailed article at Forge Hub.

Devinish has put together a guide to the spawning system utilized in Halo 3's Forge. Whilst his findings aren't officially
endorsed or informed by Bungie, they're detailed, considered and tested
findings. Separate sections tackle respawn areas, respawn points, spawn
order and the interplay between each - including discussion of how
player deaths, proximity and location will affect your spawning system from
one moment to the next.

Grifball Spring League starts today!

Yes, the ball carrier is orange this time.

Starting this morning (June 12, 2008 for the archeologists) Grifball comes back to star as the weekend's Double EXP playlist. Unlike normal weekend playlists, Grifball requires only the Heroic map pack, so those of you still holding off on purchasing Legendary have a chance rake up some extra EXP all weekend long!

User-Generated Foundry Flash Player

Folks at ForgeHub created a flash-based Foundry Designer where users can mock up their Foundry maps.

PureCallum, a user over at ForgeHub, created a simple Flash applet called "Foundry Designer," which lets users build 2D mock-ups of their Foundry creations. PureCallum has included an option to sort the level you're building on -- which enables the spatially inclined (i.e., not me) to build multi-level structures.

We're not going to link directly to PureCallum's creation -- lately we've Bungie.net users have been killing Web sites with traffic -- but the ForgeHub has more details on PureCallum's "Foundry Designer."

Improvements in the Summer League's map include:-Bringing back the truck! (Won't fall this time.)-A new, smooth, beautiful wall.-Lots of death and destruction.-A picnic area.

Grifball.com is still your number one source for all things Grifball. The Summer season will begin in just a few short weeks, so take this DoubleXP weekend to get your practice on and then register your team over at Grifball.com to get more exciting information about the most contagious game in Halo!

In his most recent walkthrough, he's plowing through the Flood-infested warehouse corridors of Voi in the level entitled "Floodgate." Picking up on dialogue that some may have missed and unveiling story connections which were once unseen, Cocopjojo expertly reveals to us the secrets of Floodgate.

Here's Floodgate and the Addendum, a helpful guide through the level on a Legendary solo mission.

Check out The Running Riot's favorite Community Files

The Running Riot received about 100 Screenshots and 80 Film Clips in the past two weeks. We picked 3 of each as our favorites and they are up now!

You can continue to submit your Files but they should no longer be sent from your File Share in Halo 3 using Recommend To Friend. Use the email links on the TRR Favs page to submit using links to the files at Bungie.net(Do not send links to your whole file share).For more current info on the changes to TRR Favs, go here and here.Thats it!

Cancel Watch: Ranked Big Team Battle

Facing near-certain death, the restrictions were lifted on Ranked Big Team Battle and the playlist rewards Double EXP for the month of June. Will it survive?

With Ranked Big Team Battle on the chopping block, Shishka and I have been taking a look each morning at a report of the Ranked Big Team population. These numbers include how many unique players, how many games (on average) are being played per player and how many total games were played in the Hopper during the previous 24 hours. We're pleased to report that through the first third of the month the playlist has seen a continuous and steady rise in population and games played.

I've also included the version of the RBTB threat level chart that I created in MSPaint so that you could see the type of artistic skills I bring to the table when Stosh is out of the office. I think the rugged simplicity and ironic use of Comic Sans is pretty sweet. Web devs were not amused.

MLG San Diego Preview

Serving as the second stop along the 2008 MLG Pro Circuit, San Diego
will play host to some of the world’s best gamers as they do battle at
the Town and Country Resort Hotel, looking to improve upon their
performances at the 2008 season opener in the Meadowlands.

In addition,
the event will provide a monumental opportunity for aspiring pro gamers
to turn their distant dreams into a reality.

A Forging Retrospective - Part II

TrueDarkFusion continues his retrospective of The Forge over at Forge Hub.

Part II of TrueDarkFusion's Forge retrospective is up for digestion and discussion at Forge Hub. In this, the second of three editorials by the site founder, TrueDark recounts how Foundry revolutionized forging and opened up a vast number of opportunities for crafting more intricately detailed and unique maps. The article goes on to cover the importance (and perceived requirement) of interlocking objects in high quality forging, then poses a series of questions including whether current and future DLC can measure up to Foundry and how The Forge will fare as the next wave of AAA games are released.

Halotracks.org Free Racing Tournament

Halotracks.org is hosting a free Racing tournament with no limit to the number of racers. Register on their site, then post in the topic to join.

Halotracks.org is hosting a free Racing tournament on their site, www.halotracks.org. There is no limit to those that wish to participate. The tournament will be bracket style with four racers per race and the top two moving on to the next round. To sign up for the tournament register at www.halotracks.org then go to this specific topic Mythic Tournament and post that you would like to join. Sign ups close on 6/13 11:59 EST.

In-Game Septagons Activated Automatically

A minor change was made to Bungie.net in the few days and if you've logged into Halo 3 recently you might have noticed it. Next to your name in the Matchmaking branch of the UI you'll (assuming you're a Bungie.net user with a linked gamertag) automatically see a Septagon next to your name. Before, the Septagon appearance in-game required players to activate it via their Bungie.net profile. Admittedly, finding the Septagon-activation device wasn't entirely discoverable in the Bungie.net UI, so now if you have a linked gamertag it will turn on automatically. We've also gone ahead and reset everyone's settings, thereby enabling the Septagons by default (that change will be live in a matter of hours).

Of course, if you don't like cool things or are woefully averse to positive change -- you can turn it off via your Bungie.net profile controls, too. To do this, go to your profile homepage (click your name at the top of the page when signed in) and click edit profile and then click "Profile Information."

Pwnathon for Charity

The 2old2playHALO Pwnathon 2008 is a month-long charity drive, consisting of fundraising based on challenges. For our first campaign, we've selected a charity that means a lot to many of our longtime clan members - and one in particular personally - PKDCure.org. The not-for-profit PKD Foundation leads the fight against polycystic kidney disease.

The Why This is not for a clan member, but a clan member's son. SwankyVariable joined our clan in April of '07. He quickly became a crowd favorite, due to his excellent game play and irreverently awesome attitude. And we were all happy for him when his son, Nathan, was born in August. What we didn't know for a while, until January, was that his beautiful son was afflicted with PKD. Swanky posted in January on his blog of the hardships they had faced to that point - and to be honest, I'm not sure anyone has had an update since then. Due to all of the issues with this, he's been out of touch. But you are all gamers, and most of you are in a clan. As much trouble as you give each other, real friendships form, and endure. Swanky is still in our clan, minds, and hearts. When Hubristes suggested doing a fundraiser, PKDCure.org and the PKD Foundation were a natural fit. Swanky does not - and may never - know we are organizing this, but it is our way of supporting a fellow clan - and 2old2play.com - member. Hub contacted PKDCure.org and we were on our way! More information here!

DigitalPh33r's Guide to Making Halo 3 Machinima

Maker of Arby 'n' the Chief series offers some tips on making a machinima.

The first installment of DigitalPh33r's Guide to Making Halo
3 Machinima, covering the definition of machinima, the pros and cons of
machinima, the games to use as a medium and legal issues regarding game content
and use of music.

Ways To Improve Your Game!

Over at HaloScene. oDinZu and s0z3r published an article calledTaking 'Teamwork' To The Core! Tips on becoming the Best!We wrote this article to help others understand the concept behind halo 3 team play.